Best of the Decade: Guitar Hero

As 2010 draws to a close, I figure it’s a convenient excuse to look over the rather stunning number of awsome games I have been fortunate enough to play over the last decade and choose my favorites. This isn’t definitive and it isn’t comprehensive. It’s simply the games that mean the most to me when looking back over the last decade of my personal gaming experience, presented one a day for all of December with commentary and personal anecdotes and in no particular order. It’s been a great decade for gaming. Please chime in with your own thoughts in the comments. 

Guitar Hero 

Platform: Playstation 2

Release Date: November 8, 2005

Publisher: RedOctane; MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix Music Systems

It’s easy to forget while you read recent news stories such as “Viacom Planning to Sell Harmonix” and “Warriors of Rock Sales Disappoint” that the plastic instrument genre was once a new and magical thing. 

In fact, the whole idea spawned just five years ago, which is pretty incredible when you think about it. It sure feels like they’ve been around longer than that.

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Gaming by Numbers

My to-do list is taunting me. 

It sits over there in the corner, confident and quiet. You can practically smell the pride seeping out from underneath its shiny whiteboard surface. 

It has nothing to fear. No reason to ever believe its puny human master could ever achieve the impossible and manage to wipe the slate clean, clearing it of all the burdens of the past and eliminating even the need for such a twisted list of all things incomplete. 

My to-do list has taken over my life. 

Well, my gaming life, at any rate. 

It's a strange phenomenon indeed when choosing which game to play becomes more a tactical choice as to which title would be easier to wipe off of that accursed list than which game would actually be the most fun to play. 

Yet I cannot simply give it up. 

I have spent a rather staggering amount of money on games this generation. If I am to keep this up, I feel it is healthy to, at the very least, make sure I get my money's worth out of that which I have bought. The list is a nice physical reminder of how much cash I have thrown away that has as yet provided no value to me. 

The other service the list provides is helping to keep my rubbery interests in check. My attention bounces from game to game like an overenthusiastic bouncy ball, constantly drawn to the next big thing. A quick glance at that board gives me the mental equivalent of a nice thump on the head, reminding me that I do, in fact, have fun stuff to play right at my fingertips. The grass is always greener in the next month of new releases, it is true. 

So while the list indeed serves a valuable function as a counterbalance to some of my natural gaming tendencies, I still can't help but loathe the thing and the power it holds over me. 

How I long for the day when I can be trusted to be fully in charge of my own play time again. I wish for a more normal gaming life, savouring only a game or two at a time until I have extracted all they have to offer and then, only then, moving on to new pastures. 

My progress toward this crazy vision of my future is slow, but steady. Unfortunately, I still face the monumental obstacles of Christmas and an unbelievably packed first quarter of 2010. 

I must remain vigilant. I must march forward with my goal always in mind. If I am ever to defeat my list, I must suffer under it's reign a little while longer yet. 

Here's hoping for a less cluttered gaming future.